What's So Funny?

What’s so funny?  By Donald Westlake

 

Retired cop Johnny Eppick believes that John Dortmunder is the finest thief not already in jail.  So he blackmails him into stealing a jewel encrusted chess set that was intended for Russia’s last czar.  Dortmunder judges the job to be impossible, but with the help of the regulars at O.J.’s Bar and Grill, a plan is hatched.  Lots of laughs—think “Ocean’s Eleven” with a paunchier bunch of thieves.

Get Real by Donald Westlake

Career thief John Dortmunder is approached with a proposition from a reality show producer. The producer wants to film Dortmunder and his associates planning and committing a heist. Dortmunder reluctantly agrees, but only after insisting that the target be a property owned by the production company. Of course, the producers are plotting to thwart the burglars, and Dortmunder, Tiny, Murch et al have mislead the television folks about their real target.

Westlake, a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, died in 2008. His Dortmunder books are the epitome of the caper novel--no one wrote a comic mystery like Westlake.

Firebreak: a Parker novel by Richard Stark

In ten words or less: Hit man targets Parker while Parker plans art heist.

Review: While Parker is deciding whether to take on a job at a Montana hunting lodge--stealing valuable paintings from a secret vault with state-of-the-art security--someone has sent a hit man to his home. Parker got to the hit man first, but when news of the failed hit got back to the employers, another hit man was sure to follow.
Parker needed to settle the score with whoever was hiring the shooters, but he was stsill undecided about whether to throw in with the gang planning the art heist. The guy who'd be responsible for disabling the alarms, Lloyd, was an amateur, a white-collar criminal who was hung out to dry by his former partner, and he wanted revenge.
Why bother? Fast faced, page-turning action from Stark, aka Donald Westlake. Parker is always one step ahead of both the other bad guys and the cops.

Nobody Runs Forever by Richard Stark

In ten words or less: Parker and pals plot to steal an armored car.

Review: A bank in rural Massachusetts is transferring assets via four armored cars. Parker is told about the job by a former security guard who had an affair with the bank manager's wife. Any number of people can throw a wrench into the works--an unscrupulous, cheating doctor; a bounty hunter and his good-looking blonde partner; and the security guard's law abiding sister.

The efficient and ruthless Parker keeps one step ahead of the law in another page-turning adventure from author Stark, also known as Donald Westlake.
Why bother? Nobody writes a caper novel like Stark/Westlake. Parker is not a likeable protagonist but fans of modern noir will savor each adventure of the efficient career criminal.